way to france in 1940, to iraq in 2013, 2014. it was not only shocking, but enormously dismaying for all those coalition forces, including british and american, that worked so hard to train this army. we have heard quite a lot about the army looking very different on paper to the reality on the ground. shadow soldiers, and about the conditions for many of the soldiers, going without food sometimes, obviously scared, and elements of corruption. it is also shocking that this wasn t realised, wasn t really taken on board, for example, in washington. i think that there are a lot of reasons that they have collapsed, but let s put it in a simple phrase. you can t buy courage. the fact is, we made them capable, gave them the equipment, gave them the training, but if you take a look at the leadership, in many ways the leadership, in many ways the leadership of the military recently had been awarded to political hacks. you take a look at the corruption inside the government, that is c
has convened a meeting of the government s emergency committee to discuss the situation in kabul. parliament has been recalled for one day on wednesday. welcome to bbc news if you re watching is in the uk around the world. taliban fighters have reached the outskirts of the afghan capital, kabul after a lightning advance across the country. the militant group now controls all the other major cities in afghanistan and look to be on the verge of toppling the afghan government, although president ghani is yet to formally step aside. these pictures filmed by the bbc in kabul show people attempting to leave the city. the taliban said they are in talks with senior officials in president ashraf ghani s government on a peaceful transfer of power. and in the last hour, these images have emerged of us embassy staff being helicoptered to kabul airport. it comes as the secretary of state antony blinken has insisted the situation is patently not saigon referncing vientma it comes a
in afghanistan was a success. it is up to the afghans themselves, up it is up to the afghans themselves, up to it is up to the afghans themselves, up to the it is up to the afghans themselves, up to the afghan government, the taliban up to the afghan government, the taliban to up to the afghan government, the taliban to decide the way forward for the taliban to decide the way forward for the country, including kabul. hello and welcome. taliban forces have entered the afghan capital, making their takeover of the country 20 years after being ousted from power all but complete. president ashraf ghani is reported to have fled to tajikistan. the remaining staff of the us embassy have been operating from kabul airport but even there the security situation is said to have been deteriorating. the latest developments come after the taliban s rapid advance in recent days through provinces across afghanistan. here s our diplomatic correspondent, paul adams. as the taliban
less than an hour away from officially introducing him. we ll go live to paris for that. and tropical storm fred forms in the caribbean and barrels toward florida. the latest forecast just ahead. good to have you with us. president biden is taking his covid vaccination campaign to business leaders, he will meet with a group of them later today to discuss strategies for getting more americans vaccinated. the meeting comes as three major u.s. airlines have announced they will not require employees to get vaccinated. delta, southwest and american airlines say they are encouraging employee vaccinations but won t mandate them. but uhe nited says its employee need to get vaccinated by late october or risk getting fired. right now more than a half million americans are getting their shots each day, highest since june, but about 30% of eligible americans are still unprotected and that is a big concern as millions of children head back to the classroom. many not yet eligible to get
i m kim brunhuber, this is cnn newsroom . as the delta variant drive as global surge in new infections, urgency of vaccination finally appears to be sinking in for many americans. daily vaccinations are back up to where they were seven weeks ago averaging about 700,000 per day. gist under half of the u.s. population is now fully vaccinated, but is still far short of so-called herd immunity. new cases in the u.s. are now averaging about 98,000 per day, the highest in sifrksx months. and we re learning more about so-called breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated. although rare, the cdc says vaccinated people are contagious if they get the virus. that is why the agency suddenly updated its mask guidance last week. here is what the head of the cdc told cnn. our vaccines are working exceptionally well, they continue to work well for delta with regard to severe illness and death, they prevent it, but what they can t do anymore is prevent transmission. so if you are go